Monthly Archives: February 2010

For those of you who got Error 404s from www.nirvana-motorcycles.com over the last couple of days, this was cause by a hacker who used the trojan/virus called Gumblar to add links to malicious sites in the scripts.

Luckily, the hosting company (www.names.co.uk) has automated systems that detect these types of attacks and took the site down while they reinstalled back versions of all the page.

I couldn’t get out on the S1000RR but managed a good run on the K1300S. It was very cold at Cooper Motorrad in Tunbridge Wells when we picked up the bikes (Jim was on an R1200RT). We headed off for Canterbury across the downs where it snowed heavily, dodging the slush in the road and warily eying the 3″ of snow on the parked cars.

This bike is supposedly BMWs “Sports Tourer” aimed at those riders who want an across-the-frame multi that isn’t fully loaded with fairing and panniers etc (a la K1300GT). The bike offers 175bhp and is hugely reassuring with excellent road-holding and handling. The digital gear indicator is useful – even then I kept fishing for a 7th gear.

The biggest drawback for me (especially yesterday) was the lack of heated grips. After only 15 minutes I was wishing for my nice warm Sprint…

Numb fingers notwithstanding, I put 100 miles on the bike in my allotted 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. 42mpg (according to the computer does not bode well with a tank of a mere 19 litres though. That’s 140 miles to “reserve” – not enough!

The electronic suspension was fun – especially in those conditions. I left it in “Normal” on the way out and tried “Comfort” on the way back. Didn’t bother with “Sport”

Mark Paris (Hondaman) is a stalwart of .net (www.sohc4.net) and has spent the last 4 years writing his own book on the CB750. It is a “coffee table” book and includes pictures submitted by members of .net over the years. Mark is hugely experienced (almost as much as Bryan Jones… ) and has put that experience and his time into this book – urged on by the members of course!

As with any “print to order” book, it is not cheap. Less than an OEM pipe for your CB, but still not cheap.

After discussing a UK “distribution” to try and reduce shipping costs, Mark has discovered that the company will deliver a “print file” to a local outfit (after commission of course) so that it can be printed locally on local sized (A4) paper.

I have blogged about my fairing damage here but now that I have the new panel, I have to refit the switch for my heated grips. This is the third Sprint ST955 that I’ve fitted with heated grips so thought it was about time that I shared the method…

Firstly, make sure that you are somewhere warm. It was -1ºC in my garage yesterday and there’s nothing quite like cold fingers for screwing up and scratching the nice new (expensive) paintwork!

Here we are in the kitchen…

I have fixed the template (which comes with the kit) to the panel with masking tape. Use lots of this as it is the perfect protection against a wayward drill or rats-tail file!

Small drill and a steady hand…

Remove the template. I hope you made a copy of it because it is strictly a single-use item!

Mask off the cut-out with yet more masking tape and apply rats-tail file (carefully)